Dance yourself open, Dance as if you've torn the bandage off, Dance in the middle of your storm

 Dance your happiness, Dance as if no one is looking, Dance for yourself and for everyone

Barbara ,The Dancing Spirit of RI

1759 Main Rd, Tiverton

Tiverton's best kept secret

The orange door up the street from Coastal Roasters

 NEW for Fall 2008!!!   DANCE WEAR

Reaching Across the world

Bali - www.balimountainretreat.com - March 2008.Workshop -Skirt, choreography & zills

Amani - www.amanionline.com  - World Dance Work is posted

 Dance/Drum Workshop/Shows/News

 May 3, 2008 Blanca www.blancadance.com & Carmine www.carmine.com for http://www.Nationaldanceweek.org

 www.newsletter@goddesslife.com - Barb's favorite class music & " Walking Rhythms Article"

www.decotach.com - Best New designer for American Belly Dance Costumes

  Videos Below

Click Here  - Hear  Barb's brother  read the poem" The Dancer" by Gibran

 Click Here  - 3 Part solo w skirt/ veil/ fan & drum solo to World Dance music 

Click Here -  2005 Ageless Group Choreography, Dancers from 11 - 67

The Dancing Spirit Temple on the River

Summer Dance into Fall Now!!!!!!

Aug - Sept 5 - On GOING classes

Pilates w Body Circles - Best Body workout, M - F, 9 - 10 :30 AM, Drop ins welcome - Call first 338 9905

 Rhythms/stretching/creative/earthy/strong/feminine/fun/core/spirit

Walk taller/prouder with better posture

Dance in skirts/veils/hip scarves 

Flexible times for private, semi private ,for friends, or families or one time classes for children, teens, special needs, seniors, girl scouts

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Oriental Theme Birthday parties for girls 7 - 37

Dress up, make up and dance!!!!

Learn a group dance with persian veils, poses, hand gestures, eye expressions, rhythms, dance w/zills, veils, skirts, fun exxpressive solo dances,

dance the presents for the special birthday girl

 Click HERE to see - National Dance Week 2008 /Flicker/Photo

Hafla Show w/Blanca , Carmine & friends

Bali Spirit & American Style Belly Dance in Tiverton 

Bali Below

Sayulita, Mexico - below

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 La Camelia - Oct 2007 V

Dear Barbara,
 I wanted to mention how beautiful your dancing is! I watched the entire video on your website and was so totally enchanted. Trust me, I rarely watch such presentations in their entirety! Not because I don't enjoy them but because I see so many in the course of a week. Yours, however, was compelling because your own modern and balletic backgrounds and training are so totally evident! I especially loved the portion where only the drumming was your accompaniment. Those beautiful hands of yours, the tremendous depth of your "feeling" The Dance........well, thank you for the performance, dear lady! If ever we do a website page where we feature some of the events, I may be returning to ask you for the use of at least a portion (with links to your site, of course). Beautiful, mesmerizing, magical.....your students are lucky to be taught by such a Master!

Patricia A. Goulding, R.D.E., M.Ed. ,Executive Director, National Dance Week
http://www.nationaldanceweek.org
Email: director@nationaldanceweek.org               

           V....  Dancing at India..... V Sept 2007

  

 June 2007 Backyard Studio below

Below - National Dance Week Celebration April 2007

Read Barb's article in www.newtimesnaturally.com - pge 25

Dance expresses the inevitable, fundamental emotions and fully conscious moments of life

Below - The Phillipine Valentine's Banquet, Venus Demilo, Feb 2007

Belly Dance refers to many styles of Middle Eastern Dance. Known also as Oriental, Cabaret, Egyptian,Turkish, Lebanese, Greek, American Tribal Style Belly Dance & Belly Dance fusion it is a dance shared by many countries and by people of all ages.   There are many different Belly dance Dance styles which are or can be influenced by Flamenco, Zambra , Indian, Rom / Gypsy, Modern/ Jazz & Ballet.

Beginning in the 50's American Dancers developed a style called American Belly Dance which features beautiful veil techniques. American Belly Dancers of which I am one,LOVE to dance with the veil.

Belly Dance is a much loved but also still misunderstood dance form quickly evolving all over the U.S. and the world today.

Learning to Belly Dance is like learning a new body language. Classes introduce students to the music and to the colorful culture.

 One of the first exercises students learn is walking and feeling the different rhythms. It is easy, hard and fun all at the same time. If you can walk to the beat, you can dance to the beat.

Many of the movements of Belly Dance are circular and have to do with controlling subtle muscles in the torso and hips that are unfamiliar to many people. At first it is a challenge to move in a circular, rhythmical way but once you loosen up it is lot's of fun!  Every student and performer moves in their own expressive way.

Belly Dance has it's roots in folk and community dance. All ages, body types and levels of experience are welcome. Beginners learn in a supportive, non competitive environment. Experienced dancers deepen their practice. Everyone of all ages and levels can enjoy dance together.

  Barb's classes are fun, challenging, interesting and educational. She fuses her lifetime of modern/ ballet/ pilates/ creative movement & Roth Dance with the language of Belly Dance.

Click here to read "Barb's Bio Blog"

The Dancing Spirit Studio 1761 Main Rd Tiverton RI

Local Belly Dance Report  

Students are saying.............

" My posture is improving"

" I am learning how to move in ways I never knew I could"

" I am feeling new muscles I never knew I had"

" I am sitting up straight at my desk"

I am walking taller"

I am making new friends"

" I look forward to my class every week"

"I love dancing to the drum"

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Teachers,Students of the dance please send comments to Barb here - Barb@thedancingspirit.com

Life Dance Map

I have been teaching and performing a dance I first learned 7 years ago from Delilah www.visionarydance.com

 Over the years the dance bones  have gotten simpler, more complex and more meaningful

 I teach the dance to students and for the audience to show the basic beginning bones of Belly Dance vocabulary

Moving Right - Dance with the right side of your brain, to the right side of your life, straight across with confidence and pride

Moving Left - Dance with the left side of your brain, to the other side of your life, with confidence and pride

Look and feel comfortable with both sides of yourself,Use every part of yourself as much as possible in every part of your life

Moving forward - Dance to the front of your life, going forward to whatever is coming your way, feeling ready to grow and accept with every experience

Moving backwards - Don't forget where you come from, check in with your roots every day and grow your tree from there and then bask in the magic of it

The Four corners - We all have corners

Some secrets, special gifts,  dark times, extra light times, mysteries, confusions

Face each corner straight ahead to see yourself and to share your  best self with the world

Don't hide in the corners, Go to your corners, explore, see what is there, embrace each corner and move to the next one 

Your turf - Your roots, your family,Your home, your town,your community, your country,Your pride,,your definite foot stamp ,strong leg, torso,shoulder, back, neck ,high proud head, open eyes 

Survey

Around you go, surveying the whole journey - - Around and around - Don't miss a second

One foot in place, the other pushing your around to journey and survey the whole view

Going Forward in Opposition

Life is full of opposition -  The one's we create, the one's we grow from and the one's we over come

If they don't ruin us , they make us stronger

Going Back to the beginning,Riding the waves, We ride the waves of your life,Over and over

We choose how and then we,ride some more,on the journey of life

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" Singing out Against Hunger weekend" , Evelyn's Restaurant - Sept 2006

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*** If you have a group who wants to try Belly Dance for the first time - call me!

 2006  Quotes from recent performances

" Hi Barbara,

I  was so glad that you were able to come and dance. Everyone had a great time! it was so good to see even my mother

 ( 81) and mother in law( 84) up , dancing , having fun. It really made the party special. What a wonderful example for

Katie (  the graduate) to see mature women really enjoying themselves ( some brave men too) celebrating with dance 

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"  Barb is a joy to behold when she is dancing. She exudes pure joy, dancing her lyrical modern style fused with

her passion for Middle Eastern Dance. Weather she is teaching, performing or showing her latest choreographic

 ideas she is joy in motion, infectious and radiant. Her smile sends sparkles of joy in every direction.

Watching her dance everyone feels moved to smile and  walks  away feeling lighter, more alive and blessed to

 have shared her  deep, dancing soulful energy .........................

From  East Booth Bay, Maine

www.spiritwear.ws , www.inanna.ws

A note about this dance form.

Unlike formalized classroom and performance dance such as ballet, modern , jazz , tap etc this dance form  is different

because it's roots are in Middle Eastern family celebrations where everyone dances together. In the Middle East

 musicians play a tabla or dumbek drum and most people are familiar with the rhythms. When there is a wedding,

engagements, births, graduations  in the Middle East there is music and dancing. The movements shared by

 everyone are the basic movements of this dance form. The dance has evolved over time into many different styles. Today

Belly Dance is being enjoyed , learned and shared all over the world thanks to the many American dancers and teachers who fell in love

with Middle Eastern Dance. I am one of them. Come join the American Belly Dance club with me!!!!!!

The left photo is me in my studio - the right is The St James Convent in Tiverton on The Sakonnet River

ABOVE - Roger Williams University Global Festival - Nov. 2005

    History of the Dance

Raqs Sharqi , Middle Eastern or Oriental Dance also known as Belly Dance is a joyous dance

expression  of emotions which interpret musical rhythms. It is the most well known dance of the

 Middle East.

Danced by women , men, children and grandparents, from  North Africa to Northern Turkey,

 from Greece to Saudi Arabia. Raqs Sharqi is versatile, elastic - a living art, continually evolving

 incorporating elements of other dance forms with ease.

 This dance predates both Islam and Christianity. Some of the dance movements have been

 connected with 5,000 yr old birth rituals. No one knows exactly where it started or what its origins

 are though most scholars believe it originated in Egypt. The steps are mostly unnamed, yet the

dance has persisted and flourished through overwhelming odds.

When introduced to America at the World's Fair in 1893, Raqs Sharqi was marketed as

" belly dance" the  most salacious possible of the French " danse du ventre" or dance of the

stomach. This was the Victorian Era when women wore corsets and exposed ankles were

risque. Imagine  the uproar exposed midriffs. The show was enclosed in a tent advertised as

 too shocking for women, only appropriate for men's viewing. The show was a success but the

 dance's  reputation was slandered.

Fortunately this undeserved image is finally but still slowly changing thanks to dancers, scholars

and audiences world wide who cherish this beautiful and challenging dance art.

                            The dance is composed of isolations and articulations including circles, undulations,

 figure 8's & snake like motions using hands, arms, shoulders, torso - back/ front, abdomen ,

hips and feet.

Also incorporated are shimmies of the shoulders and hips. Accents to the music are magnified

with various body parts throughout the dance. It is a dance of the people, of expression and feeling

 from" the inside out" rather than of high leg extensions or of high leaps across a stage. However

 as the dance slowly transitioned from living room and dance hall  to the theatre

stage it adopted techniques from other dance forms , flashy costumes, more traveling steps

and larger, grand movements than are typically found in the home version where it began.

       The dance is classically an abstract visual representation of

the music, which includes its emotional timbre. Improvisation and " feeling" for the music are highly

valued. The dancer represents the musical ornaments and extended improvisations of the musicians

with his or her interpretation and personal expression. As the dancer listens to the musicians, the musicians

 in turn  watch and play to the movements of the dancer - reinterpreting and embellishing the dancers

 movement. The result is a high level collaboration between the auditory, the visual and the emotional.

CLICK HERE for party pictures

click here For Narrows 2005 Show & Photos

More Topaz Tribe Photos by Omar Bradley

 click here to see 19 PURE dancers who came to RI

www. PUREDANCE.org  - May 14th, 2005 were here

Belly Dance Benefits

Like anything else in life - you get out of it what you put into it. Belly dancing is a

good stress reducer, energy increaser, strength improver, muscle toner and helps

with coordination if practiced regularly. It has been said that it heals, strengthens

 and balances the body, mind and spirit all at once. Belly dancing can also burn as

many calories as walking or riding a bike and like those activities you will be in better

shape if you practice 2 or 3 times a week.

Belly dance is a low impact aerobic exercise - plus it's fun , sensual and you

get to work out in skirts and hip scarves

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           What they say about her dancing ....

      "Dear Barb,

       your dancing touches my heart and soul. It is a gift from your

heart to everyone who has the privilege to see you perform. It is a gift to the

 universe....."

Jane Sanford, Belfast, Maine

      "Barb, You are an inspiration.To watch you dance makes a person realize

they should pursue their passions.Thanks for being part of " Singing out against

 hunger", Evelyn's and being in our life".

Jane Bitto,Portsmouth, RI

      " Dear Barbara, Just a note to reiterate a good time had by all. Your

 performance was very well done. You give belly dancing a respectful and artful

 form.The audience now understands the time and discipline it takes

 to perform this dance.

 " Margerate Turpeck, Little Compton, RI 

       "Barbara, You're extraordinary and have always touched me deeply

 with your dance. I get teary when I see you shimmy".

 Brenda Brock, Portsmouth RI.

          " Barb, This art form you have explored with such passion has

expanded your heart and soul in such an incredible way. You are an incredible

 spirit who casts love and grace over everyone you touch."

 Lee forbes, Tiverton RI 

             " I love that you are in my life barb! I felt similarly at your

festival in July. It was amazing!"

Lara, Soul sister Dancer from Boston

        Click  here to see more  photos 

                   2003                        

                   By coming to visit my website - you have begun an adventure to a new and beautiful world of Belly Dance  Never in my wildest day dreams could I have envisioned my dance life now. Never did I imagine being the exotic and magical dancing woman of the next event.( Surely not in my 40's!!) Never did I imagine sharing picturesof myself dancing everywhere on a huge website like this one. And never did I imagine that I would be dancing, teaching and performing now more than ever . Belly dancers dance forever!

                     One of my favorite students, Norma, is 68. She is amazing! She has followed me from class to class, location to location and she looks and moves better than ever

            I've stumbled into a dance world that I really never knew existed until 6 years ago and in this new dance world all the rules are completely different except for one - you have to work hard to be really good. 

            My dance devotion was always  Ballet and Modern dance and branches developed from those two dance forms. Ballet and modern dance are both about extensions out from the body, control, lightness, traveling through space and in general having not much direct contact or interaction with the audience. In belly dance the performer can be in avery small area of space, the dance is very internal ,following closely the curves and  circles of the body and audience contact is warm , dramatic at times, friendly  and very direct. Belly dance is a folk dance of the people - for the people - with the people.

           As I write these words this dance form is evolving very quickly ." Middle Eastern Dance" known as " Belly Dance" in this country is quickly becoming a new household word .Women are looking for a new way to feel about their bodies and want a new way to express  themselves.

This dance is ,healthy, sensual, colorful, transformational and educational . The benefits physically ( waking up  your  internal muscles) ,spiritually( belly dance is fun , makes you  think & smile) and intellectually ( the reading & learning is amazing) are too many  to count.

The reading and research about this dance alone is  incredible. There is much to be learned about  the world  through the discovery and study of Belly dance 

        Great Performers and Teachers who have been my teachers & inspirations

              Katherine Carbone of Newport

               Katia of Boston www.katiaofboston.com , a great lady of the dance

               Delilah and Sirocco of Seattle www.visionarydance.com - a wild, fiery spirit

               Zahara of Warwick www.anatoliimports.com - knows everyone and everything about RI Belly dance               

               Maja of Florida www.girlofthenile.com - a great tribal force

                            Samara www.samaradance.com - a beautiful teacher, dancer, spirit of this dance

                Elena Lantini, www.elenalantini.com - a force

                Anahid Sofian, www.anahidsofian.com - a force

               Amira Mor, www.amiramor.com - a rule breaker and huge dance spirit

               Shamira, www.shamiradance.com - great performer/ teacher

                 Morroco, www.morocco.com - known as Aunt Rocky, says it all

                Dalia Carella www.daliacarellea.com - a beautiful, passionate fusion dancer

               Lorraine Lafatta of Boston www.lorrainelafatta.com - a visionary

                Dunya of Cape Cod www.dunya.com - a modern, spiritual Belly dancer

Kaeshi of PURE www.pure.org - A Belly Dance Super Star of Belly Queen

Aida Nor www.Aidanor.com - Egyptian dancer/ teacher

Hadia www.hadia.com of Canada

Eva Cernick www.evacernick.com

Mohammed www.mohammed.com

Tito www.tito.com

Jehan www.jehan.com

www.Aradia.com

www.angelikanemeth.com

www.shareenalsafy.com 

 www.shira.net - World Belly Dance INFO

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  Quick Time Movie  Or  Windows Media

Mac or Windows........CLICK TO WATCH

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Click BOXes below

 for more info

Pictures                                               Many Past Events   

             Newspaper Articles                                        Live Performance Videos

Ilustrious Family Members

 Robert E Derecktor   World renown boat builder - Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers

E Paul Derecktor - www.derecktor.com

Mark S Donahue - Project Manager for Gemini Yacht www.derecktor.com

Thomas E Derecktor - www.tracrac.com

Adam S Donahue - west coast rep www.tracrac.com for GM

Deborah Derecktor - Exquisite chocolatier www.powerchocolates.com

Lizzy Derecktor - Innana, wow drumming band www.iannana.com & beautiful www.spiritwear.ws 

 

Entry, Nov 28th 2005

------Istanbul Turkey Story 2005                

  

Copyright © 2001 The Dancing Spirit. All rights reserved.
Revised: May 19, 2008 .